Mother of Norwich murder accused tells court how son called her following argument to say “I think she’s dead”

The mother of a man accused of murdering a woman in his Norwich flat has described how he told her he had “done something wrong” and thought a woman he had an argument with was dead, a court has heard.

“I was so scared. He then replied: “I’ve done something wrong. I need help.”

She said it was all so muddled and could not make out if he had been talking about a she or a he but she kept trying to find out what had happened.

She said: “He said I’ve done something wrong. He said he wanted having an argument. He said he pushed her and she fell and banged get head in the bathroom.”

She said he told her they had an argument and he pushed her.

Mrs Williams said her son told her the woman was “covered in blood”.

She said: “He said I think she’s dead.”

The court heard Williams was in Lowestoft when he made the call to his mum who told him to come back to Norwich.

She said he told her he could not and was “scared”.

Mrs Williams said she then told her former partner, Williams’ father, to call him as she made her way to her son’s address in Norwich.

Earlier Mr Thompson, opening the prosecution case, said the case involved the “violent murder” of Ms Ali at the home address of Williams, her neighbour.

He said: “You will hear evidence of what we describe as a violent killing.

“The killing was of a neighbour, that’s what Farnaz Ali was to the defendant, nothing more than that, they barely knew each other, certainly not in any detail.”

Mr Thompson said the circumstances that led to the killing were “unclear”.

He said Ms Ali went for a walk, on July 28, at about 7pm “as she was in the habit of doing and she was never to return home again”.

Mr Thompson told the jury of seven women and five men that it was believed she was killed at some point on the Friday evening.

Mr Thompson said she had been “left dead or dying” on the floor of the defendant’s bathroom as he left the address to go to friends in Lowestoft.

Mr Thompson said there’s evidence that Williams “struck her repeatedly to the head with a blunt implement and we say the implement that caused those injuries was a hammer.”

Medical evidence also showed there had been “compression of her neck” as well as other signs of assault on her body.

The pathologist found 59 separate sites of injury to Ms Ali’s body.

The court heard Ms Ali had been reported missing by her partner at about 9.30pm on Friday, July 28 after she failed to return from her walk.

On Saturday, July 29 police received a 999 call from the defendant’s father to say there was “a female seriously injured or dead” on the bathroom floor of Williams’ flat.

It followed a call from the defendant’s mother - who had been contacted by Williams - about the incident.

Just minutes later police in Suffolk received a 101 call from a friend of Williams to say the defendant had told him there was a dead body of a woman in the bathroom of his flat.

Police and paramedics attended Williams’ address in Godric Place and found Ms Ali’s body in the bathroom.

Mr Thompson said Williams had played “loud music” on the Friday afternoon which was exacerbated by the fact he had windows open.

Mr Thompson said Ms Ali had “earlier in the afternoon expressed some concern to her partner about the noise from loud music that was coming from the defendant’s address and it was something that he knew that on at least one previous occasion had been a concern before.”

He said Ms Ali left her address at about 7pm to “go for her regular walk” which was normally 20mins on most evenings.

When Ms Ali failed to return after an hour and a half her partner was becoming anxious about where she might be and went to look for her.

At one point he saw the defendant leaving his address carrying a hold-all.

He returned home when he could not find her he returned home and reported her missing.

Williams was picked up by a taxi at about 8.30pm on Friday, July 26.

He was taken to stay with friends at Windsor Road in Lowestoft.

When he arrived he had told friends what he had done.

He had said he had murdered a woman in his flat and her body was still in the bathroom.

He was carrying two bags, containing bottles of beer, he was “agitated and pacing about”.

Mr Thompson said he was rambling about a murder, a hammer and said they was a dead body in the bathroom.

Williams later tried to burn the hold-all which also contained some blood-stained carpet and a hammer.

A concerned friend called police the following day about what Williams had told him.

It was the second call to police within a few minutes about the murder.

The defendant was later arrested and subsequently charged with murder.